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Abraham Lincoln 



in 



Worcester 



AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY 

ARTHUR P. RUGG 

BEFORE THE MEMBERS OF THE WORCESTER SOCIETY 

OF ANTIQUITY 

ON DECEMBER 7, 1909 



jfBa 



1914 

Belisle Printing and Publishing Co. 

WOKCESTBR. Mass. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 
WORCESTER 



By Arthur P. Rogg 



The figure of Abraham Lincoln in history has grown so 
commanding and this year's celebration of the centennary 
of his birth has been so widespread that any incident of 
his life arouses interest. Every locality which can claim 
a personal association with him acquires a new dignity. 
The places where he spoke, the scenes of his actions, the 
surroundings of even trivial events in his life, attract pub- 
lic attention. Therefore, it seems worth while to recall the 
circumstances of his visit to Worcester. He was here only 
once. That was in September, 1848, the year of the Taylor- 
Cass campaign. He was then serving his single term in 
the National House of representatives, to which he had 
been elected in the autumn of 1846, and, as at the age of 
thirty-nine he had declined a renomination, it must have 
seemed then that his participation in the affairs of govern- 
ment was likely to be brief and unimportant. In order to 
appreciate the significance of his visit to Massachusetts it 
will be helpful to consider briefly the political situation 
in the country. The presidential campaign of 1848 was 
unique in several aspects. Slavery was looming large above 
the horizon as a vital issue. The vote of the slaveholders 
was always in the eye of party managers. The Democratic 
party was wholly controlled at that time in the interest of 
the slavocracy. The Whig was the only party of national 
proportions, in which anti-slavery principles could hope to 
make their voice heard. The Whigs had been almost con- 
tinuously a party of opposition since the beginning of 



2 Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 

Jackson's administration in 1829, for the victory of 1840 
had proved barren through the death of President Harrison 
within a month of his inauguration, and the sceptre of 
power had been wrenched from its hand by the political 
apostacy of Tyler. The annexation of Texas and the Mexi- 
can war had resulted in large additions to the territory of 
the United States, some of which was destined certainly 
for slavery, and a part of which might be won for freedom. 
These events, fraught with momentous consequences to 
the future of our country and the weal of mankind, occa- 
sioned violent political discussions. The Whigs, although 
on other governmental policies reasonably united, com- 
prised men of widest divergence of views respecting slave- 
ry. The satirical wit of Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar de- 
scribed the party as made up of "conscience" and "cot- 
ton" "Whigs, the former regarding slavery as a moral 
issue, and the latter suffering their moral perceptions to 
be stifled by commercialism. The factions grew in strength 
and hostility until the meeting of the national convention 
in June, 1848. A powerful portion of the party proposed 
to make no declaration against the extension of slavery, 
and to select a candidate of such neutral principles as to be 
capable of representation as favorable to all views. The 
result was the nomination of Zachary Taylor, the military 
hero of the Mexican war, without any platform. Charles 
Allen, of "Worcester, was a delegate to this convention. 
Aroused by what he regarded as the pusillanimous sur- 
render of principle to expediency, he addressed the con- 
vention in a powerful speech, in the course of which he 
said: "The "Whig party is here and this day dissolved. 
You have put one ounce too much on the strong back of 
northern endurance." He came to Worcester to become a 
candidate of the Free Soil party for Congress, and to 
justify his declaration of party dissolution by the irre- 
futable fact of achievement. Charles Hudson, of West- 
minster, had represented the district for four terms as a 
Whig. He was a Universalist minister. Although his 



Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 3 

name now sounds strangely in our ears, he was a man of 
distinction in the councils of his party. lie was ut this 
time a member of the ways and means committee of the 
national house, and a few months later was offered the 
position of Secretary of Interior by President Taylor. Tlu; 
Worcester district was one of the important fields of that 
political campaign. Charles Allen was no moan antagonist. 
He was a foeman worthy the most accomplished opponent. 
The bolter from the national convention, who had declared 
the Whig party dissolved, was a candidate for Congress 
against one of the old and tried representatives of the 
Whig party, who, although not a pro-slavery man, did not 
sympathize with, the radical views of the Massachusetts 
Free-Soiler. 

It was under these circumstances that Abraham Lincoln 
came to Worcester. I have been unable to determine at 
whose solicitation he made the trip to Massachusetts. The 
late Hon. Edward L. Pierce, of Milton, in a letter* written 
in 1891 to William H. Herndon, Lincoln's law partner and 
biographer, says: 

"I have wondered how Mr, Lincoln happened to come in 1848. 
Mr. Winthrop, to whom I spoke on the subject, does not remember, 
but thinks Mr. Charles Hudson, M. C, may have asked him. Mr. 
Lincoln in Congress did not make much impression on Mr. Win- 
throp." 

The suggestion, that he came on the invitation of Con- 
gressman Hudson, is supported by reasonable inferences. 
Lincoln had acquired considerable reputation in Congress 
as a ready and forceful speaker. His Massachusetts col- 
league, older in the service, may well have recognized his 
ability, and been won by his strength and attractive per- 
sonality. He was in Worcester on the night of the speech 



*I am deeply indebted to Mr. Jesse W. Weik, of Greencastle, 
Indiana, one of the authors of Herndon and Weik'e "life of 
Lincoln," for the loan of this and other valuable letters. 



4 Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 

by Lincoln, and himself addressed the convention on the 
day following. Moreover, there appears to have been some 
friendship between the two, for in 1861 Lincoln appointed 
Hudson to the important and lucrative post of assessor of 
internal revenue for the Middlesex district. Lincoln came 
here on Tuesday, the twelfth of September, 1848, and 
addressed a meeting held in old city hall on that evening. 
In his eulogy before the city council and citizens of Wor- 
cester, on June 1, 1865, Alexander H. Bullock thus refers 
to this visit: 

"At that time I met him in the streets of Worcester. Congress 
had just adjourned when our Whig State Convention assembled 
here in ]848. As the chosen head of the city committee of the 
party with which he acted, I had called a public meeting in yonder 
hall for the evening preceding the convention, and had invited 
«fveral gentlemen of note to make addresses. None of them came. 
But as the sun was descending I was told that Abraham Lincoln, 
member of Congress from Illinois, was stopping at one of the 
hotels in town. I had heard of him before, and at once called 
upon him and made known my wish that he would address the 
meeting of the evening, to which he readily assented. T further 
suggested to him that as the party in whose cause we were then 
united was largely in the minority here, and as there was an un- 
usual bitterness in the antagonistic politics of this community, he 
should practice much discretion, and leave our side as well in its 
prospects as he could. His benignant eye caught my meaning and 
his gentle spirit responded approval. His address was one of the 
best it had ever been my fortune to hear, and left not one root of 
bitterness behind. Some of you will remember all this, but not so 
distinctly as I do. The next day the convention came; the genius 
eloquence of Choate, of blessed memory, was applauded to the 
echo, and the stately rhetoric of Winthrop received its reward; 
but the member from Hlinois, though he remained in town sur- 
rounded by associate Congressmen, was that day and in that body 
unknown and unheard." 

Perhaps the inference from this narrative is that Lincoln 
came to Worcester without a definite invitation to speak. 
But the Whig State Convention of the day following, where 
the party principles were expounded by Rufus Choate and 
Robert C. Winthrop, whose reputation as orators and 



Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 6 

statesmen was nation-wide, could not fail to attract a man 
like Lincoln. 

Henry J. Gardner, Governor of the Commonwealth from 
1855 to 1858, describes Lincoln's visit to Worcester in a 
letter which is printed in Herndon's Life of Lincoln, as 
follows : 

"Gov. Levi Lincoln, the oldest living Ex-Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, resided in Worcester. He was a man of culture and 
wealth; lived in one of the finest houses in that town, and was a 
fine specimen of a gentleman of the old school. It was his custom 
to give a dinner party when any distinguished assemblage took 
place in Worcester, and to invite its prominent participants. He 
invited to dine, on this occasion, a company of gentlemen, among 
them myself, who was a delegate from Boston. The dining-room 
and table arrangements were superb, the dinner exquisite, the 
wines abundant, rare, and of the first quality. 

"I well remember the jokes between Governor Lincoln and 
Abraham Lincoln as to their presumed relationship. At last the 
latter said: 'I hope we both belong, as the Scotch say, to the 
same clan; but I know one thing, and that is, that we are both 
good Whigs.' 

"That evening there was held in Mechanics' Hall (an immense 
building) a mass-meeting of delegates and others, and Lincoln 
was announced to speak. No one there had ever heard him on 
the stump, and in fact knew anything abut him. When he was 
announced, his tall, angular, bent form, and his manifest awkward- 
ness and low tone of voice, promised nothing interesting. But he 
soon warmed to his work. His style and manner of speaking were 
novelties in the East. He repeated anecdotes, told stories admi- 
rable in humor and in point, interspeised with bursts of true elo- 
quence, which constantly brought down the house. His sarcasm 
of Cass, Van Buren and the Democratic party was inimitable, and 
whenever he attempted to stop, the shouts of 'Go on! go on! ' were 
deafening. He probably spoUe over an hour, but so great was the 
enthusiasm time could not be measured. It was doubtless one of 
the best efforts of his life. He spoke a day or two afterward in 
Faneuil Hall, with William II. Seward, but I did not hear him. 

"In 1861 business called me to Washington, and I paid my 
respects to the President at the White House. He came forward 
smiling and with extended hand, saying: 'You and I are no 
strangers; we dined together at Governor Lincoln's in 1848.' 
When one remembers the increased burden on the President's 
mind at this trying time, the anxieties of the war, the army, the 



6 Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 

currency, and the rehabilitating the civil officers of the country, 
it seemed astonishing to me to hear him continue: 'Sit down. 
Yes, I had been chosen to Congress then from the wild West, and 
with hayseed in my hair I went to Massachusetts, the most cul- 
tured State in the Union, to take a few lessons in deportment. 
That was a grand dinner — a superb dinner; by far the finest I ever 
saw in my life. And the great men who were there too! Why, 
I can tell you just how they were arranged at table.' He began 
at one end, and mentioned the names in order, and, I verily be- 
lieve, without the omission of a single one." 

The reference in this letter to Mechanics' Hall as the 
place where Lincoln spoke is of course an oversight, for he 
spoke in the old City Hall. Mechanics' Hall was not built 
until nine years later, having been dedicated on March 11, 
1857. 

I have made diligent effort to ascertain further details 
of the dinner given by Governor Levi Lincoln referred to 
in this letter. No doubt all who attended it have long since 
died. As was the custom in those days, the Whig conven- 
tion of the following morning was opened by prayer, and 
Edward Everett Hale is reported in the newspapers to have 
made the invocation on that occasion. A letter from him 
under date of February 9, 1909, assures me that he had no 
memory of the occasion, and was sure that he never saw 
Mr. Lincoln in Worcester. The only further information 
I have been able to get about it is from another letter of 
Mr. Pierce to Mr. Herndon, dated February 12, 1890, in 
which he refers to a meeting held the Saturday before by 
the Massachusetts Club in commemoration of Lincoln's 
birthday, Avhich was addressed by Governor Gardner, and 
after referring to the dinner at Governor Levi Lincoln's 
says: 

"Governor Gardner gives names of other guests at table as 
Rufus Choate, George Ashman, George S. Hillard, Emory Wash- 
burn, A. H. Bullock, Charles L. Putnam and Stephen Salisbury. 
Of these Washburn and Bullock as well as Gardner were after- 
wards governors. I doubt if Governor Gardner at this date re- 
members names of persons at the table with certainty, and if 
Choate was present the dinner is more likely to have been on the 



Abraham Linhcoln in Worcester 7 

day of the convention than on the day before. Gardner repre- 
sents Mr. Lincoln's address as most efifective." 

Another report of Governor Gardner's remark.s on the 
same occasion credits him with having said, in referring to 
the same dinner : ' * The guest, also Lincoln by name, kept 
very quiet." 

Mr. Charles M. Thayer of this city had a most interesting 
conversation with Governor Gardner touching this dinner. 
With his father, the late Judge Adin Thayer, he attended 
as a lad a political festivity in Boston and was placed at 
table beside Governor Gardner. The latter learning that his 
young companion lived near the Governor Lincoln home- 
stead, told the story of the entertainment there of the mar- 
tyred President, saying that he sat opposite him as the 
guests w^ere arranged. Then he related the incident of his 
visit to the President in Washington in 1861, and gave 
these details in addition to those in letter quoted. Presi- 
dent Lincoln said that he had always had a high apprecia- 
tion of the culture and refinement of the people of Wor- 
cester; that the dinner at Governor Lincoln's by reason 
of its elaborate hospitality and social brilliancy was dif- 
ferent in kind from any function he had ever attended be- 
fore. He remarked upon the beauty of the china, the fine- 
ness of the silverware and the richness of all the table ap- 
pointments, and spoke of the company of distinguished and 
thoroughly educated men whom he met there in the ani- 
mated, free and intimate conversation inspired by such an 
accomplished host as Governor Lincoln. 

The residence of Governor Lincoln at this time was 
where his grandson, Mr. Waldo Lincoln, now resides, at 
49 Elm street, but there is no tradition among the Wor- 
cester Lincolns of the dinner, which apparently made so 
deep an impression upon the mind of the Western con- 
gressman. This, however, is not surprising, for his house- 
hold was at the head of social life in Worcester for many 
years, and his generous and refined hospitality attracted 



8 Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 

to his board many persons, among whom were Lafayette, 
Webster, Clay, Adams, Everett, any one of whom at the 
time of his visit seemed far more distinguished than this 
congressman from the prairies. 

The Worcester papers of the day give a scant report of 
the speech of Mr. Lincoln on this occasion. The Palladium 
merely mentions his name as a speaker. The National 
JEgis says of it: 

' ' For sound, conclusive reasoning and ready wit it is unsur- 
passed in the campaign. It was listened to by the crowded audi- 
ence with an untiring interest, applauded during its delivery, and 
enthusiastically cheered at its close." 

The meeting was called to order by Hon. Ira M. Barton, 
president of the Rough and Ready Club. Ensign H. Kel- 
logg, of Pittsfield, was chairman, and made a brief speech. 
The principal address was made by Mr. Lincoln. The 
Spy, then edited by John Milton Earle, an ardent Free- 
Soiler, was in its editorial policy violently opposed to the 
Whig party. A parade and speech of the following morn- 
ing just preceding the state convention is described in the 
following language: 

' ' At about 9 'clock the Taylor Club to the number of some 50 
or 60 preceded by the Worcester Brass Band proceeded from their 
headquarters to the Rail Road depot where they met a portion of 
the Boston delegates from whence they escorted them through one 
or two streets back to the depot whence the citizens numbering 
we should say some 700 to 800 were addressed by his Honor, the 
Judge of Probate of Worcester County, by his Honor, the Mayor 
of Worcester, by Mr. Taylor, senator from Granby, — almost a 
facsimile of old Zach. himself, — by a Mr. Woodman of Boston and 
by Mr. Abraham Lincoln, the recently defeated Taylor candidate 
in the 7th Illinois district in Illinois for reelection to Congress. 
These gentlemen all said some good things that were rather witty, 
though truth and reason and argument were treated as out of the 
question, as unnecessary and not to be expected." 

No reference is made to the meeting in the City Hall of 
the previous evening. 



Abraharn Lincoln in Worcester t 

It will be noted that even this account is incorrect, in 
that it refers to Mr. Lincoln as "the recently defeated 
Taylor candidate in the 7th Illinois district in Illinois for 
reelection to Congress." Referring to this two days later, 
the !Spy says: 

"The organ (referring to the True Whig) complains of our sug- 
gestion that Abraham Lincoln was a defeated candidate. We knew 
that a Cass man had been elected in his district, and hence in- 
ferred erroneously it appears that Mr. Lincoln was the defeated 
candidate. It turns out, however, that it was another Taylor can- 
didate who was defeated, Mr. Lincoln foreseeing the danger hav- 
ing prudently withdrawn himself." 

This was even more misleading than the first statement. 
Lincoln declined to be a candidate for reelection because 
of a tacit understanding to that effect when elected. 

The National ^gis in describing the out-door speaking 
of Wednesday morning, September 13th, which occurred 
on the balcony of the Foster street railroad station, then 
standing near the present Lowell block, at the corner of 
Norwich and Foster streets, mentions Lincoln among others 
as following Hon. B. F. Thomas "in short and happy 
speeches. ' ' 

The most complete report of the speech is in the Boston 
Advertiser, and is appended to this paper. It is accom- 
panied by this description : 

"Mr. Lincoln has a very tall and thin figure, with an intellec- 
tual face, showing a searching mind, and a cool judgment. He 
spoke in a clear and cool and very eloquent manner for an hour 
and a half, carrying the audience with him in his able arguments 
and brilliant illustrations, only interrupted by warm and brilliant 
applause. ' ' 

The Free-Soilers were much offended by a passage, which 
does not appear in the Whig reports. R<>ferring to the 
antislavery men, he said they were better treated in Massa- 
chusetts than in the West, and turning to William S. Lin- 
coln, of Worcester, on the platform, who had lived in lUi- 



10 Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 

nois, he remarked that in that state they had recently 
killed one of them. This allusion to the murder of Elijah 
P. Lovejoy at Alton was thought by the Free-Soilers to be 
heartless, and it was noticed that Mr. Lincoln did not re- 
peat it in other speeches. It was probably a casual remark 
which came into his mind at the moment, and found utter- 
ance almost as an aside. It certainly could not have ex- 
pressed any sympathy with the outrage. 

With the aid of many friends, I have tried to find some- 
one now alive who remembers Mr. Lincoln's appearance in 
Worcester, but one person only has been found who has 
any memory about it or who attended the meeting in the 
City Hall. He is James Almon Fuller, now fourscore and 
five. Not having kept a diary at the time, naturally his 
memory is not very distinct respecting a political speaker 
then and for ten years afterwards almost unknown in the 
county at large. But he recalls the tall figure, plain ap- 
pearance, and earnestness rather than eloquence of speech, 
of him who was to be the great liberator of the slave and 
preserver of the Union 

Lincoln wore on this, as on a few other more signifi- 
cant occasions, a long linen duster. He stopped at the 
Worcester House. This was originally the Homestead of 
Governor Levi Lincoln, erected by him in 1811, and occu- 
pied until 1834. It was then converted into a hotel, and 
known as the Worcester House until about 1857 when, 
the building known as the Lincoln House block having 
been erected in front of it, the hotel was called the Lincoln 
House, the name it still retains. 

It is interesting to note the political associates and op- 
ponents of Lincoln in Massachusetts upon this visit, and 
compare their relative positions twelve years later, when 
he was a candidate for the presidency. Winthrop and 
Everett, on the same platform with him then, were hostile 
to him in 1860, while Sumner, Wilson, Andrew and scores 
of others, who opposed strongly his position in 1848, be- 



Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 11 

came among his warmest supporters in the crucial contest 
when the existence of free institutions was at stake. 

As the Advertiser's report of Lincoln's speech in Wor- 
cester shows, he then thought that the solution of the slave- 
ry question lay within the Whig party, lie regaidcd the 
Free Soil movement as a sporadic ebullition of ])olitical 
perversity, for he claimed that Free Soil was one of the 
principles of the Whig party. Miss Tarbell, describing in 
her "Life of Lincoln" his visit to Massachusetts, says that 
he "won something in New England of vastly deeper im- 
portance than a reputation for making popular campaign 
speeches. Here for the first time he caught a glimpse of 
the utter impossibility of ever reconciling the northern 
conviction that slavery was evil and unendurable and the 
southern claim that it was divine and necessary ; and he 
began here to realize that something must be done • • • 
He experienced for the first time the full meaning of the 
'free soil' sentiment as the new abolition sentiment was 
called. * * * Sensitive as Lincoln was to every shade 
of popular feeling and conviction, the sentiment in New 
England stirred him as he had never been stirred before 
on the question of slavery. ' ' It was toward the end of this 
visit that he said to Mr. Seward, "We have got to deal 
with this slavery question and got to give much more 
attention to it hereafter than we have been doing." It 
may well be that in this Heart of the Commonwealth, the 
hot-bed of the Free Soil movement, whose delegate to the 
National Whig Convention had declared the party dis- 
solved because of its surrender to slavery, and which rati- 
fied and rewarded his action by electing him to Congress, 
and where, as declared by the inscription in the City Hall 
composed by our great senator, was "organized the politi- 
cal movement begun to preserve to freedom the vast terri- 
tory between the Mississippi and the Pacific and ended by 
the abolition of slavery throughout the continent," he re- 
ceived an incentive toward the abolition of slavery, which 



12 Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 

bore such glorious fruitage in the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion. 

Lincoln spoke in Lowell, Cambridge, Chelsea, Dedham 
and Boston during this campaign of 1848, but never after- 
wards in Massachusetts. So far as I have been able to dis- 
cover, none of these speeches were reported. Worcester has 
the distinction therefore of being the only place in the Com- 
monwealth where a speech delivered by Lincoln has been 
reported. 

SPEECH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Delivered in the City Hall at Worcester on the Even- 
ing OF September 12, 1848, As Reported in the 
Boston Daily Advertiser op September 14, 1848 

Mr. Kellogg then introduced to the meeting the Hon. 
Abraham Lincoln, Whig member of Congress from Illinois, 
a representative of Free Soil. 

Mr. Lincoln has a very tall and thin figure, with an in- 
tellectual face, showing a searching mind, and a cool judg- 
ment. He spoke in a clear and cool, and very eloquent 
manner, for an hour and a half, carrying the audience with 
him in his able arguments and brilliant illustrations — 
only interrupted by warm and frequent applause. 

He began by expressing a real feeling of modesty in ad- 
dressing an audience "this side of the mountains," a part 
of the country where, in the opinion of the people of his 
section, everybody was supposed to be instructed and wise. 
But he had devoted his attention to the question of the 
coming Presidential election, and was not unwilling to 
exchange with all whom he might meet the ideas to which 
he had arrived. 

He then began to show the fallacy of some of the argu- 
ments against Gen. Taylor, making his chief theme the 
fashionable statement of all those who oppose him, ("the 
old Locofocos as well as the new") that he has no prin- 
ciples, and that the Whig party have abandoned their prin- 
ciples by adopting him as their candidate. He maintained 
that Gen. Taylor occupied a high and unexceptionable 
Whig ground, and took for his first instance and proof of 
this his statement in the Allison letter — with regard to 



Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 18 

the Bank, TarilT, Rivers and Harbors, etc. — that the will 
of the people should produce its own results, without Exe- 
cutive influence. The principle that the people should do 
what — under the constitution — they please, is a Whig yjrin- 
ciple. All that Gen. Taylor does is not only to consent, 
but to apjieal to the people to judge and act for them- 
selves. And this was no new doctrine for Whigs. It was 
the "platform" on which they had fought all their battles, 
the resistance of Executive influence, and the principle of 
enabling the people to frame the government according to 
their will. Gen. Taylor consents to be the candidate. mm\ 
to assist the people to do what they think to be their duty, 
and think to be best in their natural affairs, but because 
he don't want to tell ivhat wc ought to do, he is accused of 
havin? no principles. The Whigs here maintained for 
years that neither the influence, the duress, or the prohibi- 
tion of the Executive should control the legitimately ex- 
pressed will of the people, and now that on that very 
ground. Gen. Taylor says that he should use the power 
given him by the people to do, to the best of his judgment, 
the will of the people, he is accused of want of principle, 
and of inconsistency in position. 

Mr. Lincoln proceeded to examine the absurdity of an 
attempt to make a platform or creed for a national party, 
to all parts of which all must consent and agree, when it 
was clearly the intention and the true philosophy of our 
government, that in Congress all opinions and principles 
should be represented, and that when the wisdom of all 
had bpon comnared and united, the will of the majority 
should bp carried out. On this ground he conceived (and 
the audience seemed to go with him) that Gen. Taylor held 
correct, sound republican principles. 

Mr. Lincoln then passed to the subiect of slavery in the 
States, saying that the people of Illinois agreed entirely 
with the people of Massachusetts on this subject, except 
perhaps that they did not keep so constantly thinking 
about it. All agreed that slavery was an evi\, but that we 
were not responsible for it and cannot affect it in States of 
this Union where we do not live. But the nuestion of the 
extension of slaverv to new territories of this country is a 
part of our responsibility and care, and is under our con- 
trol. In opposition to this Mr. Lincoln believed that the 
self-named "Free Soil" party was far behind the Whigs. 
Both parties opposed the extension. As he understood it. 
the new party had no principle except this opposition. If 



14 Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 

their platform held any other, it was in such a general way 
that it was like the pair of pantaloons the Yankee peddler 
offered for sale, "large enough for any man, small enough 
for any bo}'." They therefore had taken a position cal- 
culated to break down their single important declared 
object. They were working for the election of either Gen. 
Cass or Gen. Taylor. 

The speaker then went on to show, clearly and eloquent- 
ly, the danger of extension of slavery, likely to result from 
the election of Gen. Cass. To unite with those who an- 
nexed the new territory to prevent the extension of slavery 
in that territory seemed to him to be in the highest degree 
absurd and ridiculous. Suppose these gentlemen succeed 
in electing Mr. Van Buren, they had no specific means to 
prevent the extension of slavery to New Mexico and Cali- 
fornia, and Gen. Taylor, he confidently believed, would not 
encourage it, and would not prohibit its restriction. But 
if Gen. Cass was elected, he felt certain that the plans of 
farther extension of territory would be encouraged, and 
those of the extension of slavery would meet no check. 

The "Free Soil" men in claiming that name indirectly 
attempted a deception, by implying that Whigs were not 
Free Soil men. In declaring that they would "do their 
duty and leave the consequences to God," merely gave an 
excuse for taking a course that they were not able to main- 
tain by a fair and full argument. To make this declara- 
tion did not show what their duty was. If it did we 
should have no use for judgment, we might as well be 
made without intellect, and when divine or human law 
does not clearly point out what is our duty, we have no 
means of finding out what it is by using our most intelli- 
gent judgment of the consequences. If there were divine 
law, or human law for voting for Martin Van Buren, or if 
a fair examination of the consequences and first reasoning 
would show that voting for him would bring about the 
ends they pretended to wish — then he would give up the 
argument. But since there was no fixed law on the sub- 
ject, and since the whole possible result of their action 
would be an assistance in electing Gen. Cass, he must say 
that they were behind the Whigs in their advocacy of the 
freedom of the soil. 

Mr. Lincoln proceeded to rally the Buffalo Convention 
for forbearing to say anything— after all the previous dec- 
larations of those members who were formerly Whigs — on 
the subject of the Mexican war, because the Van Burens 



Abraham Lincoln in Worcester 15 

had been known to have supported it. lie declared that of 
all the parties asking the confidence of the country, this 
new one had less of principle than any other. 

He wondered whether it was still the opinion of these 
Free Soil gentlemen, as declared in the "whereas" at Buf- 
falo, that the Whig and Democratic parties were both 
entirely dissolved and absorbed into their own body. Had 
the Vermont election given them any light? They had 
calculated on making as great an impression in that State 
as in any part of the Union, and there their attempts had 
been wholly ineffectual. Their failure there was a greater 
success than they would find in any other part of the 
Union. 

Mr. Lincoln went on to say that he honestly believed 
that all those who wished to keep up the character of the 
Union; who did not believe in enlarging our field, but in 
keeping our fences where they are and cultivating our 
present possession, making it a garden, improving the 
morals and education of the people; devoting the adminis- 
tration to this purpose ; all real Whigs, friends of good, 
honest government, — the race was ours. He had oppor- 
tunities of hearing from almost every part of the Union 
from reliable sources, and had not heard of a country in 
which we had not accessions from other parties. If the 
true Whigs come forward and join these new friends, they 
need not have a doubt. We had a candidate whose per- 
sonal character and principles he had already described, 
whom he could eulogize if he would. Gen. Taylor had 
been constantly, perseveringly, quietly standing up, doing 
his duty, and asking no praise or reward for it. He was 
and must be just the man to whom the interests, principles 
and prosperity of the country might be safely intrusted. 
He had never failed in anything he had undertaken, altho' 
many of his duties had been considered almost impossible. 

Mr. Lincoln then went into a terse tho' rapid review of 
the origin of the Mexican war, and the connection of the 
administration and of Gen. Taylor with it, from which he 
deduced a strong appeal to the Whigs present to do their 
duty in the support of Gen. Taylor, and closed with the 
warmest aspirations for and confidence in a deserved suc- 
cess. 

At the close of this truly masterly and convincing 
speech, the audience gave three enthusiastic cheers for Illi- 
nois, and three more cheers for the eloquent Whig member 
from that State. 



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